Night of the Blue Moon
by Starcalista
Summary: Lizzy wasn't supposed to be involved in the dark part of his life. He had wanted to keep her standing in the light despite what had transpired on the Campania and for three years he had mostly succeeded. But now being a witness to his latest case, he had no choice but to drag her into the world of the Queen's watchdog. Future Ciel/Lizzy.


Disclaimer: If I owned it, the anime wouldn't be over yet.

Title: Night of the Blue Moon

Author: Starcalista

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Summary: Lizzy wasn't supposed to be involved in the dark part of his life. He had wanted to keep her standing in the light despite what had transpired on the Campania and for three years he had mostly succeeded. But now being a witness to his latest case, he had no choice but to drag her into the world of the Queen's watchdog. Future Ciel/Lizzy.

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Note/Warnings: I made this when I was still in the middle of season 1 of the anime, like a month ago, so it is mostly based on the manga. I actually should be editing my slide presentation instead here I am proof reading this. Well, the only anime event that might be referred to is probably the hope diamond arc. The events after that did not happen here. Besides that, I think that I should warn you that there might be spoilers for those of you not up to date with the manga at least until the academy arc (chapter 80-something I think?), though I'll try to keep them to a minimum. One more thing, the characters here might be OOC and I just can't write action scenes so sorry in advance if it sucked. Anyway please R&R.

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**Chapter 1 – That Girl, Involved**

Word count: 3,605

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Elizabeth Ethel Cordelia Midford, also known to her friends as Lizzy smiled happily as she looked at the couples dancing on the dance floor. Despite feeling a bit envious of them she couldn't help but gush inwardly how cute and sweet they all look, especially the ones who seem to still be clumsy dancing around one another, one of them being a friend of hers she had been speaking to and a young man her friend had just met. This would explain why she was being a wallflower at the moment when usually she would be flitting from one person to the next exchanging light conversation.

Her smile turned a little sad as she, for what seemed to be hundredth time look towards the doorway of Lord Simon's mansion. Even knowing that the person she was waiting for was not going to come, she couldn't help the fool's hope in her heart that she would see her beloved fiancée at this party after knowing that an invitation had been sent to him. After all, Lord Simon was a friend of both her mother and her late uncle Vincent so it shouldn't have been unreasonable to hope for Ciel to come to his ball at least out of courtesy. But of course she should have known better. Either his watchdog duties or his company would have kept him away. Either way, if she couldn't have caught him at his house, what made her think that she could meet up with him here?

It felt like it had been so long since she saw him. Almost three weeks now ever since her 17th birthday party. Every time she went to the Phantomhive manor he had always been out and because of her age, her mother no longer permits her to stay overnight as she finds it inappropriate for a lady to sleep alone at a man's house that is not her husband, which means she can no longer stay at the Phantomhive manor, at least not until she truly becomes a Phantomhive. But what saddens her most is that Ciel himself had never gotten back to her, not even one letter. She understands though he might be really busy, but couldn't he have found the time to write her one short letter?

She sighs. Might as well go home now. She looks around the ballroom for Paula to tell her that she is ready to go now as her parents and brother had already taken the other carriage back home. She had told them that she had wanted to stay a little bit longer as she had been in the middle of chatting with one of her close friends, though the real reason was that she had wanted to wait for Ciel a bit longer. She finds Paula near the table of food and drinks, helping Lord Simon's maids with refilling the snacks and beverages. Before she is able to reach Paula though, someone suddenly reaches for her hand; stopping her in her tracks and making her turn around abruptly to the person who had dared to suddenly touch her.

"Milady, would you care for a dance?"

"…Earl Grey," there, standing before her in one of his impeccable white suits is one of the famous Queen's butlers holding her hand while bowing like a gentleman. She had had many encounters with both him and Mister Charles Phipps since she had met them ever since she started joining the royal knights in training when her mother had declared that her brother alone was no longer a suitable opponent for her growth. Plus they had once long ago celebrated Easter together at Ciel's place. She looks towards Paula who seems to still be busy and at the other guests around her. Usually it is inappropriate for a lady to dance the last dance with someone other than her intended but seeing as the young man in question was nowhere near this ball it doesn't really apply to her at the moment. Besides this song wasn't exactly for the last dance, it will only be hers as she intends to go home right after. She smiles at him and answers, "It will be a pleasure my Lord, though I'm afraid I can only promise you one dance."

"Sure, now come." He tells her, almost dragging her onto the dance floor and joining the other couples.

As she dances with Earl Grey she couldn't help but to compare him to Ciel like she does every of her dance partners ever since she had a first real dance with him. And of course if compared to her fiancé who until the last time she danced with him still hasn't mastered the art of dancing, she finds that Earl Grey dances more gracefully. It might be the result of being the Queen's butler and guard or it might be that he just has the talent but she finds it disconcerting how there's none of that warm and comfortable feeling from when she was dancing with Ciel's two left feet. Actually, none of her partners gave her that warm feeling that Ciel's mere presence could give. Though she sometimes wishes that she doesn't feel that way for she knows that if only the person she loves isn't Ciel, if only she could love a man that would give her the love and attention she deserves, she might be happier. She wouldn't be going to a ball with her family hoping desperately just for a glimpse of her fiancé. Even if people think she is just a naïve and stupid girl, she is far from either of that. She knows what society is thinking of her and the rumors surrounding her.

"So what happened to your fiancé?" Her dance partner asks as he twirls her around, as if reading her mind, though he says the word fiancé as if it was something nasty, "He hasn't been seen lately."

"Hmm…I do wonder whose fault it is that is so…"

"Well, it seems that you are not so in the dark as we assumed."

"Don't you know that you should never assume things about a lady?" She smiles, cheerlessly. Then as the song ended and another began, she stops them both in their dance, "So it was a pleasure dancing with you but I'm afraid I must excuse myself." She curtsies and immediately leaves him there almost running away and hurries towards Paula and pulls the poor maid forcefully into the night. She didn't need to be told by someone in the know about the going-ons that Ciel hides from her.

Glancing out of the carriage at the full moon that looks almost blue, her wild imagination couldn't help but go back towards those cute creatures representing it from the books that she had read as a child. The holy dragon that comes whenever there is a full moon; the stag, the companion of Diana, the roman goddess of the night; the jade rabbit, a Chinese folklore her uncle had brought back to her about the companion of the Chinese moon goddess, Chang'e that makes the elixir of life – she would love to go up there onto the moon to meet one if only she could, she is sure it would be so cute; and her favorite, the unicorn, the animal that is sacred to Artemis, the Goddess of the moon – if only such an elegant and beautiful creature exists.

But not all of the stories she had read associated with the moon are full of wonderful creatures. There was also one story where on the night of the full moon, men will turn into monsters and devour others without distinction. They would harm enemies, strangers and even loved ones. She had read that one when she had been very young and she remembered that she had had a week filled with nightmares after reading that particular story.

"My lady, is something the matter?"

She turns to look towards the maid sitting in front her that she has always regarded as her own sister and places the fan she had been holding to cover the smile she tries to put on her face, afraid that she might be too tired to put up a convincing façade. "Whatever do you mean Paula?"

"It's just that you were so happy at the ball but now it seems that you are….a bit…depressed?"

Elizabeth lowered her fan, her eyes following it and sighs. She had never been able to put up her mask for long around Paula. She is the only one that truly knows all her sides. She weighs to herself whether she should just tell Paula everything as she plays around with her fan. Her reason for coming to this ball, her reason for dressing up, her reason for using these low heeled shoes even though to the previous ball where she was sure that Ciel wouldn't make an appearance, she had gave in gracefully to her mother to use a lady's heeled shoes. But if even in her head to her she seems pathetic, it will be even more pathetic to say.

Touching the edges of her fan lightly, she admires how such a beauty could be made into such a dangerous weapon, for under the frills of the beautiful fan is hidden sharp blades that could cut even stone where it will come out with a touch of a button. Plus as long as you weren't carrying it and notice the weight difference to a regular fan, you would think that it was just that. A regular fan that ladies of noble blood use to hide their expressions as it is unladylike to express all your thoughts freely. She had taken to carrying around after her 15th birthday as the pair of fans was her mother's present to protect herself for no matter how her mother tells her; she had always refused to carry her swords around. Thankfully though, there had never been an occasion where she had had to use them in real battle so the fan in her hand and its pair that was in the pocket of her dress remained virgins if you don't count the many practices she had with them.

"I –" Before she could either confide or reassure Paula - she didn't know what exactly she was going to say - a woman's scream could be heard in the night. Without thinking, Lizzy immediately went into action. "Rob, Stop the carriage!" She tells the coachman, through the window and without even waiting for it to stop completely, she jumps out of the carriage ignoring Paula's shout to wait. She runs towards the alleyway where she is sure that the scream had come from and what she saw stopped her in her tracks.

There, a woman was struggling against the weight of someone, something, Lizzy couldn't be sure of what exactly she was seeing. Since the moonlight was shining brightly she could see the figure clearly but still, she couldn't believe what her own eyes are seeing. On top of the woman were what appear to be parts of human and parts of animals stitched together, its claws digging into the woman's forearms. She could feel bile rising in her throat just seeing the monstrous creature.

Before Lizzy could do anything, the monster bit into the woman's shoulder, making her scream out loud. Hearing another god-awful scream from her, Lizzy immediately went into action, taking out the sharp chopstick that she had been using to keep her hair up and throws it towards the creature, since she didn't want to get too close to it before knowing of its capabilities. It hits its mark making the creature let out a pained cry and diverting its attention to her. She takes out her other fan from her pocket and presses the button on both of them to extract the blades to turn them into the weapon that it is meant to be and moves back away from the woman so that the impending fight doesn't bring more harm to her. As the creature follows her, she looks at the woman a bit worriedly as her wounds seem to be deep and she is bleeding quite profusely that if she doesn't get help to her soon, it might be too late.

"My lady!" Paula's shout from behind her, distracts her for a moment that it almost costs her an arm if she hadn't dodge it at the last minute and jumped away from it.

"Paula, go get help! And call for the police and doctor."

"But…"

"Paula, go! I'll hold it off for the time being."

"Yes, my lady!" And with that Paula rushes off to call for someone.

She knows she might regret this decision though. As her personal maid, Paula has also been trained to be her bodyguard when it is required of her and if they combined their efforts, they might just be able to not only incapacitate the creature but capture it alive for questioning as well since it looks like it might be the one responsible for the recent attacks in the south of London because all of them sports a similar claw mark to the currently injured woman. But then again she doesn't know if this creature can even be questioned. Besides that, immediate help for the woman is important so it cannot be helped. But what's strange is this is not the south of London but the east, the attack shouldn't be here. So does that mean the area of attacks has finally widen?

When the human-wolf creature attacks her again, she manages to block its claw with her fan which got stuck between the metals, allowing her to cut off the claw completely with her other fan as she avoids the kick that was intended for her stomach. Unfortunately, she wasn't quick enough to completely avoid the slash of his other claw and it tore through the left sleeve of her dress and even managed to scratch a little bit of her skin. She immediately jumps back away from the creature to strategize her moves. This is a bit worrying. If it was a normal human, she is confident that she can defeat it. But this…thing… has probably thrice the speed of a normal human and many times its strength, from how she had a hard time in both evading and blocking its attacks.

She looks to the ground to see the left claw that she had cut off as she continues to try to evade its attacks. At least it seems that the claw won't move on its own and is still as a statue on the ground. She didn't know where the notion that it would move on its own had come from but it was one of her fears. The creature is also very bizarre. It seems to feel initial pain, from the fact that it let out a yowl of pain when she had thrown the chopstick at it and cut off its claw, but afterwards it seems like it can't even feel it as it continues to attack her, without taking out the sharp object from its shoulder and ignores the fact that it no longer have a left claw.

But she can't evade it forever, she will eventually tire out and this creature seems to have limitless energy.

Seeing as it is only attacking with its arms, the only one that she has to truly watch out for is the right claw, so ducking under it, she aims for its legs, hoping to slow it down or maybe totally incapacitate it. As expected once she slashes the thighs of the creature, it lets out another deafening yowl and she immediate jumps out of range of the left arm. Even without a claw, if that arm hits her, she would be lucky to get away with only a few broken ribs. But her attack to its legs wasn't deep enough and before she could even move to evade, a foot connected to her stomach.

"Ugh!" The hit had thrown her all the way to the opening to the alleyway and she tumbles around. It feels like she had been hit by full speed carriage. She struggles to get up but it feels as if her body was broken everywhere. She knows that she at least have three broken ribs and perhaps a broken or sprained ankle and cuts were everywhere on her from the tumble. She looks up to see that the creature was approaching her at half of its speed so it seems that her attack had partly succeeded. But she could no longer get up as her ribs were making it too painful. Is this the end of her?

But then the creature suddenly stopped in its tracks as if hearing something that only it could hear and it immediately changed direction towards the woman lying unconscious meters away.

"No!" Finding the limited strength she had left, she threw her torn up fan at the creature to stop it from grabbing the poor woman. Her haphazard throw managed to connect with the creature's right arm but it only scratched it. Even so, at least the creature's attention is once again on her. When she finally thought that she was a goner, the creature stops in its tracks once more and instead bounded off to wherever it came from.

She sighed a little bit in relief and tried yet again to move her broken body, her goal to check on the unconscious woman, hoping against hope that by some miracle she was still alive, what with that large wound on her shoulder.

"My lady!" the familiar voice stopped her in her crawling and she felt the gentle hands of her maid rest on her shoulder.

"Paula…" Obvious relief could be heard in her voice. She had never felt more grateful than at that moment to see her companion and forced her to help to stand despite Paula's protest that it would be better for Lizzy to lie down. She is a proud noble lady and it would not do to let people see her weak but even so she couldn't help but put most of her weight on her maid and trust on her strength to keep her up. "How is she?" Lizzy asks the men that Paula had brought with her who was now checking on the unconscious woman.

"She is alive but barely. We have to hurry her to the hospital if we hope for her to make it. She has lost too much blood to treat her here." One of the men said, after examining the woman, obvious that he is a doctor from the way he conducts himself. She didn't know from where Paula was able to find a doctor so quickly, but she just counts it a miracle that there was even someone close by.

At that moment, a police carriage trotted just in front of the alley with Lizzy's own carriage right behind it. It seems that Rob was able to call them though as usual, the useless officials arrived too late. To Lizzy's surprise though, instead of a normal uniformed police officer that should be on shift considering the late night, the familiar figure of Duke Randall and his assistant Aberlain appeared from the carriage. It seems that even they are on overtime because of these cases. It has been two weeks with more than three dead bodies, yet without any suspect whatsoever. Or at least as far as she knows there is none yet.

"Lady Midford," He greeted once he approached, taking in the situation, "Are you alright? What happened here?"

Lizzy had to fight the urge to bite his head off. Shouldn't it be obvious what happened? And don't get her started on his first question. Without even looking in the mirror, she knows she looks awful. She could already feel the scratches throughout her body and her ribs are killing her. Plus with her light blue dress torn and her hair in disarray, she looks like one of those surviving victims from a book she had read. Though if you want to be technical, she literally is one of them with what how the thing before had looked. But this is not about her. What is important is to hurry and take the woman to a hospital.

She takes a small breath to calm herself before answering Lord Randall's inquiry, "I'm as fine as can be but we need to take her to the hospital."

"Aberlain!" Lord Randall called to his assistant, whom Lizzy realized had been taking notes, possibly about the situation. "Help them move the woman to the carriage."

Then he turned back to Lizzy, "You should also get to the hospital. I hope that you would be willing to answer some of our questions once you have been treated?"

"…Of course, whatever I can do to help." she answers.

Then with Paula's help Lizzy limped towards her own carriage after retrieving her fan.

"Oh, I think I should tell you this even though you must know, considering…your position. But I'm sure Earl Phantomhive will also be on his way."

Lizzy's heart skipped a beat at that and made her almost falter in her tracks, though knowing that she shouldn't hope too much, she guesses, "He is on this case, is he not?"

"Ah, so he told you then?"

Of course Ciel wouldn't be coming for her. Choosing not to answer, Lizzy instead says, "I will see you later then Lord Randall."

And Paula closes the carriage door behind her.

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End note: Please review! A simple love it or hate it would suffice. Constructive criticisms are also greatly appreciated. ^_^ But if you want to complain about the pairing, don't bother.


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